Movie Plot – Judge Dredd: In a future world where the police are the law, the jury and the executioner, they are called Judges. There, Judge Dredd, the most famous one, is convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Director: Danny Cannon
Writers: Michael De Luca, William Wisher, Steven E. de Souza
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider

I am the law

If you haven’t heard of Judge Dredd at all, I can understand that. It’s not a character that everyone knows, like Superman. However, he is also part of DC comics.

As the above movie plot already mentioned, this all happens in a future world. Here, there is plenty of crime in the streets, and too few countermeasures. That’s why they’ve created judges. As a consequence, the justice system will be handled faster. Of course, that would never work in the real world as too much power is transferred to one person.

Now, for Judge Dredd, he’s the embodiment of the Law. Nobody knows the Law better than him, and all his decisions are according to the rules of the Law. He has no empathy, or at least not from the beginning of the film. Even if you broke the Law to save your own life, you would still be punished.

Of course, he is also known for being the best Judge in action. He is good at shooting, fighting, and he is able to reflect under challenging situations. And this is a film from the 90s, so who else to cast than Sylvester Stallone? You have to love his acting, otherwise, I have bad news for you. You will hate it. Well, actually a lot of people didn’t like this movie.

I have something to confess

For starters, I’ve already heard of Judge Dredd, and I’ve also seen the latest version of it (this was before the creation of this blog.) Apart from those two movies, I actually do not know much about the character. So I really can’t compare this movie with its source material. So if this film got the character wrong in any way, I wouldn’t know.

I heard that a lot of people were disappointed in this movie. And everywhere I saw bad ratings and reviews. Although a lot of negative things are said about it, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a fun movie to watch. Did the movie have problems? Yes, it did, but I was entertained. In other words, I really couldn’t complain and was pleasantly surprised. I also think some people make out this movie worse than it really is.

The good and the bad

Ok, clearly I liked Sylvester Stallone in this movie. Of course, it’s not top quality in terms of acting, but it suffices for me. Who I also liked was his enemy, Rico. This role is played by Armand Assante, whom I found quite impressive. I found their rivalry interesting and exciting to watch.

That was the good part, but now it’s time for the bad part. And that is Rob Schneider as Fergie.

I don’t blame the guy, as he’s just doing his job. His character was only added for comedic relief. It didn’t belong here at all, and felt like a useless character. There were also a lot of fans angry about this approach, which I can understand.

The film would probably have been much better without him. You have to imagine, for example, Robocop, but now all of a sudden, they put in a new silly character to add a couple of laughs. That takes everything away from the tone that fits the superhero/theme of the film. And I’m not saying there shouldn’t be humor. This can be perfectly possible if it is done in the correct way.

Conclusion

I am one of the few who enjoyed watching Judge Dredd. Yes, it has its issues. Although I argue that the film is not so terrible as most people say it is.

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